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For those looking for that instant effect, immediate colour or simply a softening of your space outdoors, sometimes the simplest way to achieve this is through instant gardening. How it works is very simple.

Planters are pre-made off site with a pre-selected choice of best look plants

Hand picked to suit your favourite colours and textures

And chosen with only your business and/ or home in mind

Carefully positioned, delivered and placed right at your door or place of choice

In this, plant choice will and can vary from individual to business and from desired placing to season. I have personally found that most choose the following:

Mildly scented yet neutral in colour on business/ office entrances

herb, salad or/ and fruiting choices by kitchen and eating areas

stunning, attractive and stand out for openings, ceromonies and occasions

pretty, instant and welcoming by dwelling and homely places

Planting style aside, in your space you may decide on choosing the following containers

hanging baskets

window boxes

pots and planters

raised beds

something that little more unusual

or a one off just for you

Of course this can be tailored once again to suit your specific space and all fixtures and fittings can be supplied and fitted. I personally like the fact that, if you do feel that after some time that you need that little change…

not all plants or any [depending on what you choose] will need to be replaced

the planters won’t need to be replaced at all

and the same planters can simply be painted a different colour

Although some do choose to ask for something that mild bit different and one off in general most types, styles and wishes can be discussed and ordered by phone or email and designed/ pre arranged to suit your budget. After that, you simply continue on about your daily routine and let me look after the dirty work.

Just one of the many clichés I’m on the verge of hearing more regularly now that the temperatures start to drop slightly and the evenings start to get a little shorter. The answer is more the opposite in fact.

There is a point where there are certain things that cannot be done no matter what stage of the season one is talking from, but in general the wise owls, tend to, get the ‘garden done’ in what some would consider the off season.

The reality is that with the coming of October onwards and the drop in temperatures of the seasons comes the en mass planting of trees and shrubs. Don’t get me wrong summer is fine for gardening… but when one needs to plant en mass or is planning on a budget and has the patience to place into the ground what may appear as a twig – and wait – then planting when the specimen is dormant and the sky above is willing to act as your automatic watering system ie. you do not need to water every single plant to keep it alive during the pretty decent warm summer we have just had – then logic, in gardening terms is simply just that and has been applied extremely well.

Have you ever seen someone watering plants in November…?

The other advantage is that the new plant is not competing with weeds as it tries to settle into its new home, wherever that maybe. Because essentially, weeds are plants – they simply don’t know that we don’t want them to grow there – and – like the plants we do want to grow, both are in their over-wintering state.

Generally speaking in this context, put into the summer months, the turning of the soil in order to plant [the plants] brings with it weed seeds flourishing to the surface. Come the rise in temperatures towards the end of spring it is hoped the developing canopies of foliage will assist in reducing this problem – and therefore the competition for nutrients. A mild nipping of the tips helps here.

The question then remains – when is the best time to get the garden done? And the answer is pretty simple – whenever you wish. The question back is what do you want from your garden [?]

If one for example wishes to have a ‘not always just green garden’ ie. one where the plants come and go in and out of flower throughout the seasons; like the forsythia below that flowers on bare stems in early and mid spring – if planted in summer – then there is a wait until the following season for it to come into its own and fullest glory.

Based on last year [2009] which was a complete wash out of a summer which followed straight into an iceberg…. there was a point where freakish summer climatic conditions meant the gardener [yours truly] had to take time to let the clothes dry out, at some point, eventually.

But this year has been quite good. I’d easily gather bbq sales were up on last year and with that summer feeling has come a rise in requests for garden make-overs, tidy-ups and manicures [with mild additions to]. The other thing noticable is that clients and potential clients started calling in June to plan for the coming ‘off season’.

Tree and hedge planting season is what it may be called for some. But what are people calling Donegan landscaping asking for ?

The requests all have planting of some form involved, but generally speaking the reason to do it, as versus the type of planting, in the off season is the fact that the couple/ family or in the case of one residential complex – the client[s] do not wish to have to water or maintain the plants once planted. A smart move, when making the most out of ones budget, as versus reducing the budget in the main season and not getting the most from the project.

It also means the planting is not trying to flower, establish and settle itself throughout a period where transpiration and growth are also a trying to take place.

It may well be the weather for you to stay inside, but for the tree, the gardener and the plants, investing wisely now may just give you the same rewards for a lot less effort come next spring and summer.

And on top of that…. there’s some hedging and really, really nice trees to be planted 😉

How does your garden grow…?

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http://doneganlandscaping.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/donegan-landscaping-logo.jpg00Peter Doneganhttp://doneganlandscaping.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/donegan-landscaping-logo.jpgPeter Donegan2010-09-21 18:26:182012-06-12 13:59:53The Right Time To Get The Garden Done

There are many gardens I have created and designed over the last, more than 10 years now. These are just some of the images that may help in giving you an idea of just what kind of possibilities exist with your great outdoors.

With an estimated 93% of all textile waste in Ireland sent to landfill, rediscover fashion is a spin off – now fashion label – from Rediscover Centre Ballymun. Set up in 2007 its aim is to demonstrate the potential for textiles recycling, reuse and recovery in Ireland and also to highlight the environmental, social and economic benefits.

Yesterday I attended their second fashion show. All the clothes were made from recycled materials. Some from pillow cases, some from ikea waste bins and old restaurant uniforms. Others were made from jeans and old suits. I know for a fact for one piece in particular the material was taken from a skip….

Ballymun now has won 30 environmental awards. In 2008 it was voted Irelands fair trade town. They have also won the Arthur Guinness Fund.

Take a look at what one can do when the imagination is really put to the test. Now pretend I never told you this fashion show took place in Ballymun, in an Ikea store and that some high street fashion label was the designer. In all honesty, I know all of the pieces were for sale yesterday. But I could not tell you whether they would have cost €75 or €1750. I also know diddly about fashion…. but this blew me away and from a green perspective it is exemplary.

The assessment for this award is through a stringently audited programme that was designed to raise standards within the landscape industry and increase customer confidence by rewarding companies who operate an awarded quality system through best practice and at the highest standards possible to this sector of the horticultural industry.

In 2009 the Landscape Quality Award had only been achieved by eight companies in Ireland. There are two award levels on both programmes; a Certificate of Merit (60% score) and the Quality Award (75% score). This is my third consecutive year to accept the Quality Award.

On winning the award Peter Donegan said:

I am delighted to win this award. I am now starting my 10th year in business and this now is recognition that a quality system is in place behind the scenes as well an already proven ability to design and landscape.